


Mamma Mia! I Can Never Let You Go

by MSiLeT



Category: Kingsman (Movies), Mamma Mia! (2008)
Genre: ABBA, Almost song fic but not quite, Alternate Universe, Firthstrong, M/M, Musicals, Relationship Through the Years, Since it's based on Mamma Mia! of course the songs will feature heavily, Some characters might try to sing, for both KM and MM, kind of fix-it, take place before during and after all 4 movies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-22 10:36:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15580080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MSiLeT/pseuds/MSiLeT
Summary: This is the fic to answer to the questions such as "Where is Harry Bright's boyfriend?" and "Why is Mark Strong not playing Harry Bright's boyfriend in Mamma Mia?" that many people (rightfully) ask after watching the Mamma Mia! movies.What if the love of Harry Bright's life is Kingsman's Merlin?





	1. The Day Before You Came

**Author's Note:**

  * For [turonegerton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/turonegerton/gifts), [MidgardianNerd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidgardianNerd/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A prologue about our main characters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy (belated) birthday to Midgardian_Nerd and (as the time of posting this fic) Mr Mark Strong!  
> The young Harry Bright in this story will look like Hugh Skinner as in MM! HWGA but will have the makeup and hairstyle of young Harry Bright in the flashback in MM!  
> The present-day Harry Bright, of course, will look like the Colin Firth version. They are not the same person, though  
> Also since the MM writers decided that having a timeline that makes sense is only for mere mortals, I have decided to time it like this:
> 
> 1980: Harry Bright met Donna. He was 21.  
> 1982: Merlin joined Kingsman at 19. Harry was 23  
> 1997: Lee Unwin died. Merlin was 33, Harry Bright was 37, Eggsy was 6.  
> 2005: Harry Bright went on the island to meet Sophie. He was 45, Merlin was 41.

**London, 1982**

 

**Merlin**

 

Hamish Brown stepped out of his modest flat and locked the door, making sure he went through all security measures to secure the flat against intruders. As his foot touched the pavement, a dark cloud moved in to block out the weak rays of sunlight. Just another grey London morning.

He went through the same routine that he had for the last year, ever since the day he joined Kingsman. He got on the tube just before rush hour, picking up the day's newspaper on the way. He read it during the ride, acting normal as if he was just another paper pusher getting to work, and not the youngest handler-cum-technician in the history of one of the world's most famous secret services.

He frowned as he read through the news. Unlike Galahad, who liked to read the trashy yellow papers and collected the issues that matched the days of his mission, Merlin tended to choose a more reputable publication. Another day, another problem arose somewhere on earth. They tried saving the world as much as they could, but it sometimes felt like there was just no end to any of it. Maybe Galahad was right; he should get the stick out of his arse and look on the bright side of life. But then again, Galahad was an arse most of the time, so screw him.

He arrived at the tailor shop, greeted the men at the front and travelled to Headquarter via the special underground system as always. As of that moment, Hamish vanished and in his place was Emrys. Emrys loved this job. He really did. In all honesty, being at work was the highlight of his day. His life had been dull up until the day an old man called Merlin pulled him out of a lecture and offered him a job. When he realised that Merlin wasn't just pulling his leg, he accepted the offer immediately, dropping out of university. He didn't enjoy socialising, finding most people boring to talk to yet hard to please. He preferred numbers, computer codes and hardware. No matter how complicated they were, they all followed specific rules that made sense to him. Being in Kingsman, using his skills and hobby for the greater good was too good to be true.

He stayed late at work every day; often the last one leaving. He didn't feel like going away from the little kingdom of machines that he built for himself. Home was boring anyway; if he ever got an office like Merlin, he would just install a bed in there and never had to worry about having to go back to his cold flat.

Eventually, however, he would have to leave work and go home. He picked up some takeaway food, not bothering to cook, and the evening's newspapers. Once inside his flat, he ate, read a little and then went to bed.

 

* * *

 

**Harry Bright**

 

Harry Bright rolled out of the messy bed and fell onto the cluttered floor in his tiny flat in London. What time was it? He didn't know. Must have been noon. He came back late last night, early this evening, to be more precise. He groggily sat up, contemplating lying back down on the floor again. _Yes, floor is good_ , he thought, lying down again. The bloody sunlight was in his eyes, though, because he didn't manage to properly shut the curtain last night. _Of all the days to be sunny_ , he complained to himself and gave up trying to get more sleep.

Harry went to the kitchen and opened his fridge, hoping for something edible. Stale bread and three-day-old ham, acceptable. He would have to pick up some grocery later, living on takeaway was not financially viable, especially with the number of gigs he had lately. It had been two years since he came back from Paris and decided, quite spontaneously, that he should try being a serious musician. A rock star! That was how people became cool and got girls, right? Harry Headbanger was born and he would be a big star, big enough that Donna would see him, where ever she was! Well, at least that was what he thought, he didn't know the grind was so tough. Two years and he had only gotten a couple of gigs a month at one single pub, which, he thought, was given to his band because the owner took pity on him. Of course, Harry didn't cry on the man's shoulder in gratitude, he needed to keep his cool, aloof rocker persona with little regards for the rules after all. Besides, it'd ruin his eyeliner.

He looked out the window, down on the busy street. It was noisy most of the day and thus the reason the rent was cheap. Harry was a heavy-sleeper anyway, so he didn't mind. The little people below all seemed to be in a hurry, like they had somewhere they needed to be, someone they needed to meet. Above him, dark clouds started moving closer, which added even more greyness to the whole scene and made him feel even lonelier.

He turned the telly on to watch something, anything, to be honest, he just wanted to hear someone speaking so that he didn't have to listen to his own thoughts. After a while, he got bored and pulled out his guitar to practice. He went through the songs that the band would have to play that night a couple of times, then decided on something new to start on. He wanted to write his own song but never found a muse to write to. It was sad, honestly, wanting to be a rock star but not having a single song to one's name, but he was confident that his song would come to him one day and it would be _good_.

By the time it was six in the evening, he began to get ready for the show, putting on his makeup and his leather clothes, spraying his hair to make them look spiky. He got out of his place at almost seven. The rain started falling heavily just as he stepped into the pub.

Just another wet London night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As this is based on Mamma Mia!, I will make this an actual full set-list. Each chapter will feature a song from ABBA and if you know the song (at least the lyrics), it will set the mood much better! This one is, of course, The Day Before You Came (and I nicked some lines from Elton John's Latitude).
> 
> Also, pray for me as we progress further and I will have to try to find a way to refer to Harry Bright and a way to refer to Harry Hart :P


	2. Voulez-Vous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our main characters meet!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sort of rushed this chapter out a little because I will be away on holiday tomorrow and I wanted to pretend that I have been productive so please forgive me if I made some mistakes.

 

**London, 1983**

 

What a fucking disaster of a day that was and Emrys was in a foul mood. He came to work in the morning to find out there was a power surge sometime during the night and a computer and a half of his delicate components were fried. Then he found out how antiquated the whole electrical system around the Kingsman headquarter really was. When he complained to Merlin, the old man just smiled and said that if he wanted something done, such as modernising the Kingsman infrastructure, he would have to do it himself and dragged everyone along. Not deterred by the seemingly to-big-to-handle task, he sat down started looking into the blueprints of the old system to coming up with concepts for a new one while also cataloguing which components of his were damaged and how to get a budget for replacement. Being a junior member of the tech branch apparently meant that everything he needed to buy would need approval, while older, much less competent boffins were allowed to order whatever the hell they wanted.

In the afternoon, he had to sit on com with Galahad and listened to the agent's attempt to seduce a woman who was married to a minor mafia boss on his honeypot mission. Emrys was bored out of his mind, yet he wasn't allowed to get back to the mountain of actual _work_ that he needed to do, in case something went wrong. He couldn't wait until the day he would be allowed to handle serious missions instead of _this_. As if it wasn't bad enough, Gawain later carelessly blew up a prototype that Emrys emphasised that it was very costly and complicated to build, then he had the nerve to put the blame on Emrys, saying that the tech malfunctioned because he didn't put enough work on it.

So, it was just natural that he wanted to leave work a little earlier today. However, he didn't few like going home to stew silently, either. That was when he decided that a drink would be in order and popped into the next pub he saw.

 

* * *

 

Once inside, Hamish, as he was out of work now, sat down at a small table against the wall, away from where the most people were, and ordered a drink. For a small pub, it was pretty well-lit and cleaner than many that he had been to, which was nice. It could be mistaken for a café if one didn't notice all the alcohol it offered.

 _Eh, might as well_ , he shrugged to himself, then pulled out the book he had with him and picked up where he left off. The waiter came at one point with his drink and went away without disturbing him. He was engrossed enough in the book that it completely startled him when people clapped and the live band started playing. Embarrassing, to be honest, that someone working among spies was caught so off guard. _Well, at least I'm not a field agent_ , he thought defensively.

He tried ignoring the music and continued reading his book, but as the band started playing a popular tune, the atmosphere in the pub became a lot more lively. People began singing along, causing others to talk louder. Merlin ordered some chips and another drink, deciding to people watch instead.

Half an hour into eating his chips, drinking and listening to the loud music, he was pretty sure that the lead singer of the band was watching him. Of course, he noticed it much earlier, he was trained in the ways of espionage at Kingsman after all, but he wanted to be sure while still coming off as nonchalant.

The brown-haired lead singer didn't look like he would pose a threat. Even though he tried to look tough, behind his makeup and messy hair, there was an innocent, earnest air around him, especially with the way he tried to please anyone who would pay him their attention. Hamish was slightly amused by how the guy glanced over to his direction every once in a while. He tried to look inconspicuous but every time he saw Hamish, he became both curious and nervous then quickly looked away.

 _Interesting_ , Hamish thought and decided to stay and watch the whole set. He wanted to observe this guy more, see what he was or wasn't going to do. Even if the singer would disappear through the back door after this, at least Hamish was already entertained. That felt much more fun than going home and re-live the events of the day in his head.

 

* * *

  


An hour later, the band finished playing the last song on their set and Hamish was still there. By the end of the show, the singer was confident enough to look him straight in the eyes, once. Hamish still found the whole thing amusing, maybe it was just because he was into his fourth drink already, but he was actually smiling and humming along with a song. As the band bowed to the crowd and left the stage to go back inside, he figured that it was a sensible time for him to finish up his drink and make his way home. He'd still be in bed before eleven if he left now.

"Hallo, kann ich sitzen hier?" (Hello, can I here sit?) A man pointed at the chair on the opposite side of him, speaking broken German. He looked up, it was the lead singer of the band. Hamish raised an eyebrow.

"My Name ist Harry. Ich bin...Uhm…Musician. Und...you?" (My name is Harry, I am a musician, and you?) the man continued, mixing both German and English in his sentence.

Hamish hesitated. On the one hand, if he brushed the man off and went home right now, he would have a full night's rest before going to work tomorrow. On the other hand, for once, he desperately needed to talk with a human about something, anything, that wasn't Kingsman-related. In the end, he kicked his voice of reason to the back of his mind and gestured for the man to sit down.

"Danke. I... Ah... Schön, das ich... Ah... Meet you." (Thank you, nice to meet you)

Hamish took pity on the man, slowly sipped his drink to hide his smirk and said, "Nice to meet you, I'm British, by the way. Scottish, to be precise."

"Oh," Harry gulped and looked down, embarrassed, "Sorry about that."

Hamish chuckled. "Up until now, I've only had people mistaken me for a member of the Italian mafia, never German. This is a first. My name is Hamish Brown."

Harry, even more embarrassed, tried to explain himself, "No! No, definitely not a mafia. You look like a well-educated gentleman! I only saw your book and thought, you know, that you were German."

Hamish picked up his book, Der Prozess by Franz Kafka, and looked at its covers, all written in German. "I can see where the confusion comes from," he smiled, looking at Harry, "I can speak German and prefer to read books in their original language when I can."

"That's great! What's the book about?" Harry leaned in, interested.

And that was how the conversation started. They went from discussing that one book to other books to how Harry was supposed to be a banker like his father, but he decided to pursue music instead. He told Hamish of his great love for a girl named Donna whom he met in Paris and hope that one day when he's famous, she would see him and find him again.

"At the moment, we are only a cover band, but I will come up with a hit sooner or later. Maybe a powerful love song for Donna!" Harry said enthusiastically. Hamish felt that sounded pretty far-fetched, but he didn't want to offend the man, so he just nodded. What he had noticed so far about Harry Bright was that he was a naïve person with a lot of grandiose but unrealistic ideas. The thing was, Harry talked about them with such child-like enthusiasm and optimism that it felt like a crime to contradict him.

Hamish grinned, "To be honest with you, I didn't expect you to be like this when I saw you on stage."

"Like what?" Harry looked confused.

"Heavy makeup, spiky hair, leather clothes, the name Harry Headbanger, I imagined you would be more... aggressive."

Instead of being offended, Harry face lit up and he leaned forward, "It works, then, this appearance? You think I look tough?"

Hamish nodded and the singer smiled brightly. "That's great!" he declared, "It's what I'm aiming for. Girls love rock stars!"

That made Hamish laugh. "All these troubles for a girl, she must be really special."

Harry started waxing lyrical about Donna which amused his conversation partner even more. Hamish didn't mind, it was a breath of fresh air to talk to someone so animated and carefree instead of the frigid and sombre agents who dealt with death and destruction day in day out. If anything, he thought that the singer was kind of cute.

At one point, Harry realised that it was kind of rude of him to bombard a complete stranger with his story about a woman the person didn't know, so he changed the topic and asked Hamish about himself instead. Hamish gave him the standard cover story, that he was the tech support at a tailor shop and did freelancing projects for other companies on the side, which made his schedule very unpredictable because his contractors might want things done in a short time or at inconvenient moments.

Harry asked about what sort of tech he was working on and Hamish gave him a simplified account of his projects, actually venting about his workplace's ancient electrical system that broke down and Harry looked genuinely interested in what he had to say. The singer admitted to the tech wizard that he had no clue about technology and the way they work seemed like magic to him, which amused Hamish greatly.

Much to Hamish's displeasure when he glanced at the watch on his wrist, it was already very late, he needed to go home and get some sleep. If he dozed off on his feet tomorrow, especially while handling an agent, there would be hell to pay and he didn't feel like dying just yet.

Harry looked so disappointed when Hamish announced that he needed to go, to the point that he considered staying a little bit more. The man seemed just as lonely as he was and in need of a friend to talk to. Then again, Kingsman always came first.

"Promise to come back soon?" Harry asked hopefully, "I play here twice a week, usually on Wednesday and Saturday. I'll make sure you get a discount next time!"

Hamish hesitated. He didn't feel like making promises in his line of work. He could be working on some time-intensive project, handling a mission, or he could be forgetting about this altogether and it was just bad manner to stand someone up. Harry pleaded, "Please? Talking with you has been the most fun I've had in months." Then, realising what he had just said, he murmured, "Well, that was embarrassing to admit."

Hamish sighed but smiling anyway, "Fine, I'd come over when I manage to take a breather from all my projects. And I will probably need to take you up on that offer of discounted alcohol."

"Oh, please do!" Harry clapped his hands together. "I will tell the owner to look out for you!"

Hamish nodded and made his way out of the pub, finding that his steps home were much lighter than when he arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harry's German was all over the place, just like his French :D
> 
> Although Voulez-Vous is a much sexier song, I don't feel like it's the time for that yet so this came out a lot milder.


End file.
